


Out Cold

by iscatterthemintimeandspace



Series: Finding Home [2]
Category: Supernatural
Genre: Adopted! Anna, Adopted! Gabriel, Adopted! Uriel, Daddy! Chuck, Gen, Prompt Fic, Snowed In, Social Worker! Chuck, Unnatural Writer's Club
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-06-14
Updated: 2016-06-14
Packaged: 2018-07-15 00:59:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/7198994
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/iscatterthemintimeandspace/pseuds/iscatterthemintimeandspace
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>With four rowdy kids, Chuck Shurley hates snow days. </p><p>Written for the Unnatural Writer's Club on the SPN Amino. Prompt: Snowed In</p>
            </blockquote>





	Out Cold

Chuck Shurley was good at being prepared. With seven kids, both adopted and biological, you didn’t really have a choice. Luckily for his sanity, he only had four of them when the storm hit. 

Chuck hadn’t been prepared for the snow. 

It had snuck up on him, between calming Uriel down from another foster home nightmare, and trying to get Castiel’s fever down, and dropped three feet of snow just before dawn. He was halfway to the mailbox to get the paper before he even realized he was up to his thighs in cold powder. 

“Guess that’s a no for school today,” Chuck hollered up the stairs to his two older children, and he shook out his wet pajama bottoms. Anna would be up by now, perfectionist that she was, but he knew Gabriel had pressed the snooze button for the fourth time. “Go back to sleep!” 

Chuck pattered down the hall into his cramped bedroom to change. They weren't going anywhere today. His car, which didn't’ work under the best of driving conditions, would be more of a hazard today than anything else. They were snowed in, and he was dreading the day. Keeping four children entertained all day was no easy task. 

He quietly opened his bedroom door. Uriel was still huddled under the blanket, the lopsided stuffed platypus Gabriel had made for him clutched tightly in his chubby fist. The thing was downright ugly, but Uriel never went anywhere without it. 

Castiel was standing in his crib, looking at his father with eyes swollen from crying. 

“Do you want to come cuddle with Daddy and Uri?” Chuck asked his son, bending to pick him up from his crib. Castiel clung to his neck, making sleepy little whimpers as Chuck turned back towards his bed. He laid back down, pulled Uriel against him and closed his eyes. 

He was awoken rather rudely only a couple hours later. 

By the fire alarm. 

Chuck grabbed Castiel, who immediately started screaming his little head off, and Uriel and ran towards the kitchen. 

There was a big billow of black smoke coming from the stove, and Gabriel was standing in front of it, spatula in hand, trying to wave the smoke away. 

Chuck’s heart stopped trying to crawl out of his throat. “Gabriel!” he snapped, bouncing Castiel up and down in his arms. “What in the Lord’s name are you doing?” 

Gabriel coughed. “Making pancakes.” he said. “What does it look like?” 

“Burning down the house,” Chuck sighed as he went to turn the hood fan on and open the door. 

When he turned back around, Gabriel’s lip was quivering, his head hung, golden eyes filling with tears. “I was just trying to help.” 

Chuck felt awful. Sometimes he had to remind himself how much some of his children had been through, and that he had to be more delicate when dealing with them. “I know, Gabe,” he whispered, pulling his son against his body. “I was just scared, that’s all.” 

Gabriel sniffled against his shoulder, and Cas yanked on his older brother’s hair, causing Gabriel to smile. He was never greedy with his smiles when it came to Castiel. 

“C’mon, Cassie.” Gabriel held out his arms to the baby, and Cas flung himself away from Chuck and giggled against Gabriel’s chest. “Let’s help Dad make breakfast.”

Chuck watched them with a smile, as Gabriel took Cas to the cupboard to get the flour and sugar. 

Because of what Gabriel had been through, Chuck often thought of him as older than he was. In some ways, he was far too mature for his thirteen years, and in others far too young. He’d been brought back into the foster care system four times in his short life, and Chuck’s heart had broken when he had first laid eyes on the tiny then- nine year old whose beautiful golden eyes had seen too much. 

Uriel still clung to Chuck’s hand as he watched his brothers bring out canisters of ingredients, other hand clutched to his raggedy toy. He was still the quietest of all the children, preferring to stick his thumb in his mouth rather than speak. 

“You wanna go get Anna?” Chuck said to him. The little boy nodded and disappeared from the kitchen, only to return a couple minutes later dragging the end of his sister’s dress. 

Anna, the only girl of the bunch, was impeccable as always and already a lady at ten years old. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail, trailing long and red down her back. “Can we have muffins, Daddy?” she asked, picking up Uriel, and tickling his belly. 

“Pancakes!” Gabriel piped up from behind her, where he and Castiel had spilled half of the flour onto the table. 

Anna pouted. “I want muffins.” 

Chuck scrubbed a hand through his hair. “We can have both, okay?” 

Famous last words. 

~~~

After pancakes and muffins, and the inevitable mess and clean-up, Chuck was tired. He was so used to having most of his little ones away at school, he’d almost forgotten what four kids were capable of. 

By the time he settled the three older ones down, it was time for Castiel’s nap, and his little angel rarely went down without being read to. 

He selected one of his favorites, A Christmas Carol, and got comfortable in his worn old chair, with Castiel on his lap. He began to read. 

“Marley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about that. The register of his burial was signed by the clergyman, the clerk, the undertaker, and the chief mourner. Scrooge signed it…” 

Chuck didn’t notice until he smelled the undeniable odor of candy canes that Gabriel was reading over his shoulder. He pretended not to know. 

He pretended not to feel the warm weight against his leg as Uriel snuck across the floor and plopped himself directly on Chuck’s foot, or when Anna sidled up along side him to look at the pictures. Castiel was still wide awake in his arms, as his siblings got closer and closer. 

Maybe being snowed in hadn’t been so bad after all.


End file.
